James Hendicotthttp://www.hendicottwriting.com
Freelance Music and Travel WriterSun, 18 Feb 2018 10:00:34 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.2The Free-Wheeling Reincarnation of O Emperorhttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/free-wheeling-reincarnation-o-emperor/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/free-wheeling-reincarnation-o-emperor/#respondSun, 18 Feb 2018 10:00:34 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6248Returning to the scene after a break of a couple of years, O Emperor leave behind their hang-ups, delving into a free-spirited, avant-garde, industry-ignoring new phase. The Waterford act are back, but not as you know them… When they burst onto the Irish music scene with major-label debut Hither Thither, O Emperor were a band [...]

]]>Returning to the scene after a break of a couple of years, O Emperor leave behind their hang-ups, delving into a free-spirited, avant-garde, industry-ignoring new phase. The Waterford act are back, but not as you know them…

When they burst onto the Irish music scene with major-label debut Hither Thither, O Emperor were a band known for their meticulous attention to detail. They wrote beautiful, haunting indie-pop songs that meandered wonderfully, every note carefully adjusted in agonised-over studio recordings.

That startling attention to detail was a blessing and a curse: at times a constraint on the release of the band’s music, but creating a distinctive and much-loved sound that propelled them to national attention. In hindsight, frontman Paul Savage admits “We needed to let that perfectionism go and accept that at a certain point what we’ve done is actually fine. We used to obsess over things like the exact level of reverb. Looking back, I don’t think other people really notice or care about things like that.”

After a couple of years away, O Emperor returned having done a full 180. New single ‘Make It Rain’ is the first offering from an as yet untitled new album, and the first of a series of pre-album singles set to come out over the course of a year. The band also completed their live return with first show in some time last week at Cork’s Quarter Block Party.

“We did most of the recording two years ago, but we’ve only got to mixing now,” Savage explains. “We’re very bad at taking our time with things. We got a notion to go ahead with it now, though, so we’ve gone ahead. We’ve gone really rough and ready with stuff. It’s actually written live. It’s just live jams. We recorded two to three hours of us jamming and picked out bits we liked, and chopped up and constructed some bits in the edit. Then we added the vocals later, but even the vocals were kind of made up on the spot in some cases.”

“It’s influenced by things like Sun Ra, Can, and krautrock stuff, and really concentrates on atmosphere. It can actually be quite difficult to reproduce live, and it’s really radically different to anything we’ve done before. It’s already evolved quite a lot from the record in rehearsal and in the live show, as it’s very difficult to actually reproduce what you did before. There are clashed notes, odd chords, stuff like that.”

“We’re trying to base the live show in a framework and jam around that,” he continues, “which can be hard to do, especially where you’re nervous. It’s easy to mess up on the spot, but it’s really exciting to do.”

In the early days, O Emperor were signed to Universal, and looked like a serious prospect for the kind of overblown music industry success that the likes of Hozier and Walking On Cars went on to achieve. The difficulty, as Savage recalls it, was that even back then the band weren’t particularly suited to radio play. Even when second album ‘Vitreous’ was the hot favourite for the 2013 Choice Music Prize (Ireland’s national music award, eventually won by Villagers with ‘Awayland’), O Emperor were never quite a household name.

“Being with Universal was a long time ago, and important in the development of the band,” Savage explains. “It was short-lived but it taught us what we needed to know about the music industry and how to exist within it. We weren’t as avant-garde back then, but we were never the type for daytime radio. Daytime radio is very limited, unfortunately, and it doesn’t suit 99% of Irish bands. It would be difficult if you really wanted to pursue things full time, but we’ve never really been at that level.”

These days, it’s more about having fun, though it’s easy to get the sense that the more relaxed approach might bring about the band’s very best days. Savage sees the falseness and tepidness of the music industry for what it is, and prefers the more stress-free approach the band are taking now.

“We’re just enjoying playing, enjoying making music,” he says. “We’ve played in Germany and the UK before, and I hope we’ll be able to do that again, but it’s different doing it for the enjoyment. We found the PR stuff to be a lot of work, and quite stressful, especially when you’re spending money and feeling like you should be getting better results; that it’s not really helping you that much.”

“There’s an obsession with things being new, and you end up doing things like launches for international tours that are fictitious, really, as everything that’s online is available everywhere already, so you’re not really doing anything new. But from a PR point of view you need a ‘new release’.”

“We’re less and less interested in stuff like that, and far more focused on the music this time. If people discover our music in four years time and listen to it then, that’s great. That’s a nice thing.”

O Emperor make their Dublin return in playing the Bello Bar on the 17th of February. Single ‘Make It Rain’ is out now.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/free-wheeling-reincarnation-o-emperor/feed/0Music Magpies: the Eclectic Indie Beats of Django Djangohttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/music-magpies-eclectic-indie-beats-django-django/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/music-magpies-eclectic-indie-beats-django-django/#respondSun, 11 Feb 2018 10:00:39 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6243Having bounced from a bedroom-DIY debut that brought a Mercury Prize nomination, to a follow up they seem to have dismissed as an uninspired blip, Django Django – an almost impossible band to peg – are back with a third album, ‘Marble Skies’, and heading for Dublin.. Django Django have been hovering around the edges [...]

]]>Having bounced from a bedroom-DIY debut that brought a Mercury Prize nomination, to a follow up they seem to have dismissed as an uninspired blip, Django Django – an almost impossible band to peg – are back with a third album, ‘Marble Skies’, and heading for Dublin..

Django Django have been hovering around the edges of a burgeoning indie scene for years, hard to define but easy to love. They draw in aspects of straight-up indie rock, electro-punk, mild psychedelic tendencies and plenty of varied, often-sampled beats.

The entire concept seems to hang on limitless experiment, something that’s evolved strongly through their careers, and now revolves around a large practise room in Tottenham (North London), crammed with their monstrous vinyl collection and all the instrumentation they need.

“We have to take it a little differently now,” frontman Vincent Neff – a native of Derry – says of the band’s everyday life. “When we’re back in London, it’s very much a normal working schedule, as some of us have families, so the whole all-night, up drinking while we write music thing is largely a thing of the past. That’s totally different on tour, of course, but when we’re recording we have to consider family life.”

“What we produce comes largely from a lack of belief in genre. Dave [Maclean, the band’s producer and drummer] has a crazy techno record collection, while the other lads have other influences. There are five or six new records coming into the practise space every week. Growing up in the 90s you were going to a gig one night and a rave the next, listening to the Happy Mondays and hard house. I don’t really understand how anyone can just be into a genre, and come out with stuff like ‘I just listen to techno’. That idea eroded for us a long time ago.”

There are difficulties with that variety, of course, not least in Django Django’s textured and nuanced sound being extremely difficult to reproduce live. “It takes a long time to sort,” Neff admits, laughing. “You get onto the stage and it sounds different. There are definitely some songs we just can’t do, and others that are different live, that we change the rhythm of, or use different instruments.”

“Some songs we try for a few minutes as a live setup and it’s immediately obvious it’s just not going to work. Others we kind of stumble on solutions.”

Latest album ‘Marbles Skies’ has been a long time coming. “By the time it comes to release you’re just excited to have it out there,” Neff says of the launch of their third release. “It’s been six months finished, and working on other stuff, like videos, and how to play the tracks live, and it’s more of a relief than anything to actually have it out there.”

“Ideally we’d like to put it out the next day, but things don’t really work that way, though I did come across a label that does that recently. We actually wrote this one apart, in a sense, and that worked quite well. It was quite dynamic at the beginning. We got Anna [Prior, the drummer with Metronomy] involved. Dave being away from us was a bit of an accident, but in a way it gave us all space, and we came at each track with fresh ears, which made things slightly different from before.”

There’s a sense, in fact, that Neff wasn’t all that happy with Django Django’s second album, which saw the act shift to the ‘big time’ but perhaps become a little less themselves. They moved from a very-much bedroom recording set up in their 100,000-selling self-titled debut, to a high-end studio production in sophomore release ‘Born Under Saturn’.

“You can say you don’t care when the critics aren’t as into it,” Neff says, “but that’s only so true. If someone pummels it, it’s not like you can go out and just fix it the next time. Nothing’s ever going to be to everyone’s taste and you kind of have to go with your gut. But I don’t really believe anyone doesn’t care what people think of what they’ve put so much work into.”

“We work with an amazing label, and that gives us real freedom,” he continues. “At the time we started out, they were the only label willing to offer us a decent contract, but Because Music have been excellent, they’ve supported us without trying to influence too much what we do. I’ve heard a lot of grumbles about labels interfering in music, but they have a really varied roster and are into really different stuff. We draw from everywhere without a real common theme. We’re like musical magpies. So it kind of makes a lot of sense for us.”

Based on the reception of its early singles and the first few days of the new album, it seems likely the Marble Skies will be the popular return to form that Django Django were looking for. The critics are certainly infatuated, if continuing a charming and convoluted struggle to pin down exactly what this band actually are.

“For us, it’s mainly about moving forward,” Neff says. “We’d hate people to feel that we’re just going over old ground. I think we had this idea that we’d be a little cult band playing to 150 people each night, forever, and that would suffice. Once it took off we had to think a little differently, but, things went beyond our wildest dreams.”

Django Django play the Tivoli Theatre on Francis Street on March 2. Their acclaimed third album ‘Marble Skies’ is out now.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/music-magpies-eclectic-indie-beats-django-django/feed/0Bags of Talent: the Offbeat Charm of the Red Hot Chilli Pipershttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/bags-talent-offbeat-charm-red-hot-chilli-pipers/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/bags-talent-offbeat-charm-red-hot-chilli-pipers/#respondSun, 04 Feb 2018 10:00:13 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6237Red Hot Chilli Pipers – an award-winning Scottish bagpipe band not to be confused with the Los Angeles rockers who inspired their name – are famed for their live show. With more than a dozen bagpipers and drummers on stage, they cover Avicii and AC/DC, Coldplay and Journey, whilst explore trad traditions, and absolutely pulsating [...]

]]> Red Hot Chilli Pipers – an award-winning Scottish bagpipe band not to be confused with the Los Angeles rockers who inspired their name – are famed for their live show. With more than a dozen bagpipers and drummers on stage, they cover Avicii and AC/DC, Coldplay and Journey, whilst explore trad traditions, and absolutely pulsating with bouncing energy.

It didn’t start like this, though. In fact, the group leapt to prominence as the star of ‘When Will I Be Famous?’, a sub-X Factor TV show. They were a fantastic novelty, but one that was clearly going to have to adapt to survive the usual post-show drop-off. And adapt they did.

“When we won the TV show, we didn’t even have a website,” bagpiper Willie Armstrong recalls. “We got lots of offers to play and it was an incredibly exciting time for us all. Bear in mind most of us had other jobs, so it did get a little stressy.”

“The big difference between our band and the many other acts that have been through the same thing is that we are incredibly hard working. We realised very quickly that the fan base was really driven by the TV show; people were fans of the TV show and not necessarily fans of the band. We still had to build a fan base.”

“If we had nothing to offer, the gigs would have dried up quickly. We had to make sure our product was strong enough that people would come back, and they’d come back with their friends.”

The live show, then, has become the band’s thing. Naturally, that leans on a certain amount on the recognisability in their tracks, but also on the unique twist that the bagpipes and drums put on them.

“We have invested a great deal in the production side of our shows,” Armstrong explains. “Our lighting engineer flies in from Poland, and we have the two best sound engineers in the business. The equipment we use is all top of the range. Every part of the live show is recorded and then dissected after each performance. Nothing is left to chance as we have too much respect for the paying audience.”

“We have won live act of the year twice now, and I think that’s a testament to the time and effort that’s been put in. Something else we do that not a lot of other bands in our position do is we come out and meet the audience after each show. It shows humility I think and lets the audiences know that we really appreciate them making the effort to come and see us.”

Naturally, touring as such a large group presents its difficulties, though, and with the Pipers playing regularly all over the world, it’s a notable logistical issue.

“It’s incredibly difficult,” Armstrong admits. “Thankfully we have Kevin [MacDonald, fellow bagpiper] who has a brain like a computer and is able to see the logistical big picture. There’s so much more to it than meets the eye. Getting all the visas arranged is a week’s worth of work alone. Then we have to find decent hotels and the means to transport around 14 people.”

“Obviously if we had less people on stage then more money could be made, but it’s really not about that. Imagine you went to see the Red Hot Chilli Pipers one year with the massive wall of sound coming at you and you went back to be faced with 6 guys. That’s just not going to work. We share rooms on tour, but we chop and change who shares with who as that way you don’t get stuck with a snorer for five weeks. You may laugh, but these things seriously start to make a difference after a while.”

As such a large group, we’re sure the tours contain some epic stories, though Armstrong is a little coy on the tour tales when we ask. Nevertheless, he comes out with this gem: “The ambient audience mics have proved problematic a few times. We recently played a show in Scotland and all we could pick up throughout the whole first half was a group of females on a hen night explaining to each other exactly what they wanted to do to us… In a nice way.”

There is the odd name-related mishap, though. “In America, we get some people buying tickets for our shows thinking its the Peppers. Not as many as you would probably think though. Perhaps ten per year.”

“Some realise they’ve made a mistake and come along anyway, because they research it and realise that perhaps we might not be that bad. One time we were playing at the Carpenter Centre in Long Beach and I met a couple dressed head to toe in tartan. Like stand out, head to toe including hats. It turns out that they thought they had bought Peppers tickets, and although they were offered a full refund they decided to embrace their mistake and get right into it. They’re now our biggest fans.”

As for picking those cover tracks, it’s harder than you might think. “We always try and make sure the traditional music comes first, and then we’ll go through literally hundreds of rock or pop tunes and see if there’s anything of merit that would fit. Our setlists are still about 60% trad tunes. The big difficulty is that the bagpipes only have one octave, so there’s a lot to think about. During sound checks or rehearsals one of the guys will come in with an idea, normally he’ll have the charts written out for the rhythm section and we’ll give it a go. You get the feeling straight away whether it’s going to work or not.”

“The overwhelming reaction we get is that people will say they never knew bagpipes could sound like that, and I’m incredibly proud of that. It’s such an emotive instrument when played well,” Armstrong concludes. “I’m still not sure that part of it has been explored as thoroughly as it could be.”

Red Hot Chilli Pipers play Vicar Street on February 11.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/02/bags-talent-offbeat-charm-red-hot-chilli-pipers/feed/0Take out the calipers: the thick-skinned return of Paddy Hannahttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/paddy-hanna-interview/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/paddy-hanna-interview/#respondSun, 21 Jan 2018 10:00:44 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6231Having put aside his demons and tackled the dramas of recording an album that really didn’t go to plan, Paddy Hanna’s had a rocky road to his sophomore release, but he’s staring proudly over those roadblocks. Castleknock native Paddy Hanna has been in a fair few bands in his time, but over the last few [...]

]]>Having put aside his demons and tackled the dramas of recording an album that really didn’t go to plan, Paddy Hanna’s had a rocky road to his sophomore release, but he’s staring proudly over those roadblocks.

Castleknock native Paddy Hanna has been in a fair few bands in his time, but over the last few years, he’s been operating under his own moniker, drawing the crowds through the distinctive vocals of his leftfield indie-pop ditties.

A former core member of popular and borderline-defunct DIY collective Popical Island and frontman for one of their key acts, Grand Pocket Orchestra, Hanna released his debut album ‘Leafy Stiletto’ in 2014. Years later, his return with his latest ‘Frankly, I Mutate’ might be greatly delayed, but has already drawn the attention of the likes of NME and Stereogum through its early singles. His style is one of emotive vocals, gorgeous yet jarring instrumentals and slow-building, dramatic peaks.

It’s been a difficult road for Hanna, though, who’s never been afraid to speak his mind on the problems musicians face. “Things are totally different this time,” he tells us. “I’ve had line up changes and life changes. I’ve tackled some mental health issues; spent some time on finding things that work. I started working on this album when I went onto medication. I was looking at things with a new clarity.”

Things were to go a little haywire, though, with the recording process brutally interrupted, and the album release – originally planned for last year – heavily delayed. “I lost my manager half way through the two weeks in the studio,” Hanna recalls. “It was strange, as he’d introduced me to Daniel [Fox, the producer who was to be heavy influence on the album’s style], and really set this project in motion.”

“The wall of sound affect Daniel introduced is an essential element on the new album. It was our project, in many ways, but my old manager decided half way through that he didn’t want to carry on. It’s a funny one. You’ll hear it on the album. Half the tracks are me excited about being back in the studio, and have that feel to them. The other half are very different. After the manager left there was some drinking and some really wasted vocal takes. I guess the contrast is part of the mystique of it.”

Astonishingly, the studio was to close shortly after Hanna’s recording, too, meaning a number of tweaks to the record had to be done elsewhere, further complicating the process by the requirement for a new studio a fresh set up. Eventually, the seasoned performer – at something of a loose end – hooked up with Galway music legend and Roisin Dubh main man Gugai, who will release ‘Frankly, I Mutate’ on his Strange Brew label.

After such a shaky process, though, there’s no question the early signs are good. “I guess the new stuff has got more attention than previous singles,” Hanna admitted. “I’m not sure if it’s because it’s better material, or because it’s building on my previous stuff.”

That process has been far from smooth sailing, however. “You have to come through some difficult stuff as any kind of musician or artist. So many people just leave it behind,” Hanna points out. “It’s financially difficult, and you just have to come through so much soul-destroying waiting and sheer indifference. You have to just keep going until you get a second skin. Sometimes I just want to tell people to keep going, to wait and to grow those calipers a little bit., that they’ll get there.”

Paddy Hanna (photo by Stephen White)

Popical Island, the popular collective of friends that brought both Hanna and some of the Dublin indie scene’s most compelling contemporaries into the local music limelight, is sadly all but defunct today. Hanna’s been somewhat critical of the group in the past, but insists his complaints came from a good place.

“I love those guys. We drifted together as bordering on inseparable friends, and I guess it drifted apart in a similar way. It was very difficult to push yourself there, and I felt like they should have wanted more,” Hanna explains.

“I regret saying some of the things I did about them, I was quite critical in interviews, and I think it upset some of them. But it came from a place of love. Love and anger are very close together. It’s not gone, but it’ll certainly be quiet for some time.”

“It’s difficult to survive this way, it can feel like scamming a living, and it’s quite pressured. In some ways, though, I think it makes you work harder. From my perspective, you don’t go into music to get paid. I’ll always remember that first gig I ever got paid for. That validated me, in a way, it pushed me on.”

As for reaching that much-desired success? “I have my yardstick,” Hanna tells us. “It’s to headline a certain venue of a certain size. I don’t want to say where, but I haven’t got there yet. Until I get there, it’ll be about pushing hard, because that’s what you have to do.”

Paddy Hanna’s second solo album ‘Frankly, I Mutute’ is out on March 2.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/paddy-hanna-interview/feed/0Future Stars? 2018’s Most Likely in Irish Musichttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/irish-music-ones-to-watch-2018/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/irish-music-ones-to-watch-2018/#respondSun, 07 Jan 2018 10:00:32 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6227As we edge into another year, we can’t help but look ahead to 2018 in Irish music, casting a glance the way of the country’s great hopes. There’s plenty to be excited about, from a rising hip-hop scene to plenty of impressive and lairy rockers, but we’ve narrowed it down to just seven rising stars. [...]

]]>As we edge into another year, we can’t help but look ahead to 2018 in Irish music, casting a glance the way of the country’s great hopes. There’s plenty to be excited about, from a rising hip-hop scene to plenty of impressive and lairy rockers, but we’ve narrowed it down to just seven rising stars. Here are our picks for Ireland’s most likely breakthrough artists for the next twelve months…

Jafaris

Ireland’s hip-hop scene seems to get better by the day, and while Rusangano Family are the much-acclaimed kings, Jafaris – who played Ngig in Sing Street – is coming up fast on the outside. With a quick quip constantly to the ready and a live show that seems to wow everyone before him, the Diffusion Labs rapper is working on a 2018 album as a follow up to the sensational Velvet Cake EP. Add the man to your ‘must see’ list before he starts playing anywhere bigger: when a vocalist delivers this kind of cuttingly intense honesty together with the boisterous on-stage persona that Jafaris has made his own, the result is certain to fly. [website]

Bitch Falcon

After a patchy 2017 that saw the three-piece undergo a personnel change, this grungy Dublin outfit are all set to fly once again. They seemed to be everywhere for a little while, with their pounding, intense live show backed up with an early single nodding to obscure parts of the body (TMJ) amongst a sprinkling of lairy, crafted riff-laden tracks. They have a cult-like following on the Irish guitar scene, and November’s new single ‘Of Heart’ created some buzz in the UK music press, too. And who wouldn’t want band merch with that particular band named emblazoned all over it. In a word, ferocious. Brilliantly so. [website]

;

Vulpynes

The new darling of the Dublin punk scene, this powerful young two-piece are abstract, grungy and very, very loud. Nodding heavily to an abundance of late 80s and early 90s influences, they make more noise than should be feasible for a just two, and have won the love of their punk peers as they’ve gigged relentlessly through 2017, slowly edging into Dublin muso’s consciousness as they bounce from venue to venue. Think snarlingly aggressive tunes kicked firmly into the 21st Century, formed with the most modern of twists (via a shoutout on Boards.ie), and delivering gorgeously raw tones. [website]

Siobhra Quinlan

A highly creative soprano composer who’s making waves on the opera scene, Siobhra Quinlan is perhaps the most likely classical crossover artist of the coming year, combining vocals that will please the casual listener and the technically minded, and going fiercely creative in the abstract and imaginative styles that make up her work. Over the course of 2017 she released several powerful offerings from her awesomely ambitious Sfiiinx project, as well as work examining George Bernard Shaw, and taking on a 24-hour project that saw her producing and performing an opera as part of a talented team. Inventive, and memorable. [website]

The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock

Blending folky-trad roots with some louder and more modern rock licks, The Spook of the Thirteenth Lock have been relatively mute for years. They formed way back in 2005 and released their self-titled debut in 2008, with memorable follow-up album ‘The Brutal Here and Now’ arriving back in 2012. It turns out they’ve spent the last few years doing something huge. ‘Lockout’ is the product of five years worth of work, and will look at the 1913 Lockout workers protests in Dublin, as well as glancing at the impact of Constance Markievicz and the women’s rights movement in Ireland. History fused with nuanced and intelligent trad-rock music: expect them to return with a bang come the album launch in March. [website]

Emma Langford

Blending folk, jazz and her own distinctive vocal, Limerick singer Emma Langford is all about memorable melody and soul-exploring lyrics, and showed it with a gorgeously eloquent 2017 debut album in ‘Quiet Giant’. She’s been around for a little while, but Langford felt like she came into her own in the last 12 months, and with her sharp takes on modern life and cleverly ‘less is more’ production, she’s the kind of artist who has the potential to wriggle quickly into the forefront of minds. A space to watch. [website]

Thumper

They might share a name with a Disney character, but these guys are no soppy cartoon: Thumper’s blaring and manic live show was ably backed up with a surprisingly brilliant 2017 EP in ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’. The EP’s surprising mainly because Thumper sound like the kind of band that excel live, and this third release was a marked step up on its predecessors, and had the feel of a coming of age. Seemingly inspired by their compatriots Girl Band, Thumper say they play pop music. What they mean is they roar their melodies through a dank filter at high volume. All kinds of excellent. [website]

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2018/01/irish-music-ones-to-watch-2018/feed/0New Year Festival: A Very Dublin New Yearhttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/dublin-new-year-festival-feature/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/dublin-new-year-festival-feature/#respondFri, 29 Dec 2017 10:00:41 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6220Kodaline, light, aerial performers, brave water-tech and drumming mayhem: what to see at Dublin’s New Year Festival It’s that time again: the year’s most anticipated night out, followed by a hungover vow to change yourself for the better, a gym owner’s favourite couple of weeks, the odd salad, and finally everything getting back to normal. [...]

Kodaline, light, aerial performers, brave water-tech and drumming mayhem: what to see at Dublin’s New Year Festival

It’s that time again: the year’s most anticipated night out, followed by a hungover vow to change yourself for the better, a gym owner’s favourite couple of weeks, the odd salad, and finally everything getting back to normal.

Dublin’s New Year Festival has been lighting up the city (literally) over the last few years, and has slowly expanded from mainly a big gig to a whole lot more. This year’s stars are massive Swords band Kodaline, who will be accompanied by Keywest and Hudson Taylor in an extremely local-leaning pop-fest lineup.

That core event is long since sold out, but there’s plenty of other stuff to explore, much of which is free, and spread out across December 31 and January 1. These events include several light displays (which are free ticketed events on the Custom House – register through Ticketmaster), acrobatics, smaller concerts, flyboarding and a host of pop-up performers.

We caught up with a few of the people involved to ask them all about what they do…

Heliosphere

Carrying out acrobatic performances whilst hanging from oversized helium balloons seems like a wacky and potentially dangerous idea, but also a nice way to present gymnasts in a new way, against a bright background, and allow them to perform.

Heliosphere pioneered the concept. “Research, testing and practise,” were key, they say, adding “we research the science so an envelope of just the right size and which is light and strong enough to hold the helium, is used with enough ‘useful lift’ for the aerialist to fly but be manipulated from the ground safely by the crew without so much lift that they fly as well.”

Festival of Light at Dublin New Year Festival

“Our show consists of a big launch moment where our aerial dancer flies into the air. It is a delightful and impossible image. We then perform an aerobatic segment to music where she flies in loop-the-loops and then flies down to meet the audience.”

“[The idea] came from a desire to create the illusion of flying. We wanted to combine the talents of an acrobat, music, lights a wonderful location and some innovative design, to create a sum larger than all the parts. The venue, the event and the weather all shape the final show. This means that no two shows are really the same. We don’t see this as a problem but as the fun. A little piece of magic.”

Flyboarders

You might have come across Flyboarders once or twice: they’re those crazy looking people who seem to be surfing on jet packs out of water, powered by a kind of tube mechanism attached to a jet ski as they fly over the surface. The sport is only five years old, having come about as a result of the experiments of a French jet ski champion.

It’s quickly gained popularity, though, and will feature in the Liffey during the festival. We don’t envy them the temperature.

There’s plenty that can be done on a flyboard, even in winter. “There are numerous tricks that we can perform, backflips, 360s, supermans and dolphin dives,” they explain, “however in the winter time with the LED suits and water temperature, dolphins and underwater tricks are restricted a bit. There are numerous combinations that we can perform, though, and with the right atmosphere and crowd support double and triple backflips are possible.”

Flyboarders at Dublin New Year Festival

“The River Liffey is quite wide compared to some of the canals that Flyboard Team Europe perform at, however with three flyboarders (for the first time ever in Ireland) at one time in a professional show it will make it a bit more difficult. It will be a challenge we all look forward to.”

As for actually riding those boards? “Sense of direction can be difficult at times, especially when performing shows and tricks. One key thing to look after is the hose, which weighs up to one tonne when full of water. This is one the most important things as if it hits the jet ski or if you fly into it, the hose can cause serious damage or injury. Once you have direction and your position with the hose and jet ski is ok, then generally everything else works out. We’ve had flyboarders as young as ten or as old as eighty giving it a go.”

Hit Machine Drummers

Performing a mix of high-energy drumming and a little Irish dancing, the Hit Machine Drummers are one of the rising stars of the small-scale, interactive end of Ireland’s music scene, performing short, frantic, punchy sets.

“Members of the group have toured the world with some of the biggest names in music today,” they tells us. “Our show involves high-quality drumming, but also incorporates Irish dancing and crowd interaction, and our main aim is to make sure the crowd enjoy themselves and to leave them wanting more.”

“We’re lucky to have some World Champion Irish dancers hidden within our drumming group. Those guys have toured the world as part of some of some of the biggest music and dance productions, like Riverdance and Lord of the Dance.”

“All the members have to be very physically fit, as the show is so high energy. We know the audience feed off our energy on stage, so we always give it 100% when performing. That can be difficult to do when you’re playing three to four shows a day at a festival, but regular rehearsal and exercise give us the stamina needed.”

“We love the challenge of producing new and exciting pieces with just drums as our instruments. We always have the audience in the back of our mind when working on new sets and we strive to create something that will not only excite and impress them, but will have them on their feet and wanting more.”

All the info you could possibly need on Dublin New Year’s Festival can be found on nyfdublin.com.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/dublin-new-year-festival-feature/feed/0Vulpynes: Bring the Punk, Bring the Noisehttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/vulpynes-interview/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/vulpynes-interview/#respondMon, 18 Dec 2017 20:26:34 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6214Punk two-piece Vulpynes are only three singles old, but already look a good bet for Dublin music’s next big thing. So what has the lairy pair making waves in London and Berlin? DUBLINERS VULPYNES had an inauspicious start. Formed after drummer/ vocalist Kaz Millar placed an advert on Boards.ie looking to form a band (future [...]

]]>Punk two-piece Vulpynes are only three singles old, but already look a good bet for Dublin music’s next big thing. So what has the lairy pair making waves in London and Berlin?

DUBLINERS VULPYNES had an inauspicious start. Formed after drummer/ vocalist Kaz Millar placed an advert on Boards.ie looking to form a band (future partner in crime Maeve Molly McKernan was the first to reply), the post eventually resulted in a four-piece. They played only covers, and lasted mere days.

Millar and McKernan had felt something click, though, and after a brief search for a bassist, decided to start making original material, and to go it alone. Their sound takes much of its inspiration from the 90s. It’s raw, nodding distinctly to acts like Hole, Alice in Chains, L7 and Soundgarden. Riddled with reverb, abrasive and fearless, it comes from a band dynamic that was very much full speed ahead from the off.

“We started off really determined,” McKernan recalls. “We were just eager to play, and took any gig we were offered. It’s a mentality we’ve kind of continued with. We want to play live, and the more people see us, the more people know us. It’s a word of mouth thing. With the UK shows, we reached out to promoters the first time around, and since then we’ve been invited back to do shows. We’re going to Berlin this month, too, and back to the UK in 2018.”

While relatively underground at least for the uninitiated (it’s based largely around a small handful of labels and venues, though there are surprisingly numerous bands), Dublin has long had a powerful and close-knit punk scene, based around lairy nights out, an enticing community spirit and supportive culture.

“It’s a really friendly community of bands,” McKernan explains. “They really want to help each other out, and they love music. It’s that community where we feel at home, and we’ve found it so welcoming. Everyone’s so genuine, with a real community spirit with no backstabbing, and we love it.”

While they connected specifically in order to form the band, the stories of Millar and McKernan’s journeys with punk are surprisingly similar. McKernan’s mum introduced her to bands like L7 and Hole at a young age, and now shows her support for Vulpynes by drawing, producing stunning illustrations of the pair as skeletons, or foxes. Millar’s older sister channeled Nirvana and Alice in Chains into her life.

Much of the band’s creative spark now happens in a practice room in Whitehall. Shared with several other bands, the space is “too hot in summer and too cold in winter,” but enough to allow the pair to work. The songs come together quickly.

“We normally write lyrics first. I’m constantly scribbling verses,” McKernan tells us. “Then riffs, and Kaz adds her magic, cutting through it. That we’re done in a couple of hours is a nice uncomplicated reality for a two piece. I like my guitar to sound distorted, but not too hazy, not too muddy.”

So far, the singles have been a stark statement. ‘OCD’ is a brash if oddly-positive ode to the condition, with abrasive riffs and throat-battering lyrics. ‘Terry Said’ is a little less direct, written about a stranger in a Dublin bar, with almost sneeringly dank choruses. The newest release, ‘Silica’ is the best yet, unapologetically in your face and bitter, with deep-toned chords that almost twist McKernan’s guitar into a bass-like snarl.

“The two-piece thing does seem to be kind of fashionable,” the pair admit, “but we never planned it, it’s just how things worked out. I love the White Stripes, because they’re not afraid to just write good songs, they never try to fill up something that isn’t there. They’re just good songs. We’d relate more to them than someone like Royal Blood, who just sound a bit overproduced to us. We’re really as raw sounding as possible. That’s what we want to do, and it’ll be the same when we come to doing an album.”

The future is bright for the pair, and in the short term will see the boisterous two-piece playing extensively over Christmas and New Year, including a Hot Press showcase in January.

“We have a few plans for the New Year, but we don’t really plan too far ahead,” McKernan tells us. “We’re always very busy, but we like it that way. We noticed the other day that it’s been almost six months since we put out a single, back in July, and it’s just flown by. We’re going to try and get something physically released next year. The next step is an EP, probably in the first quarter or so of the year, and probably a video, too.”

In passing, McKernan mentions two key chords on which she bases much of her guitar part. It’s an aesthetic, of course, but also distinctly punk rock, about being raw, direct and sticking to a tone as much as delivering a melody. The passion for their project is clear to see in everything the duo say. As a well-known twist on the old saying goes, ‘love is like punk: not dead’. Whatever the pair do, it’s sure to be done with passion. The result is one noisy, relentless party.

Catch Vulypnes at the Dando Christmas Sessions, Fibber Magees, December 30, or at the Hot Press Tramlines show on January 15.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/vulpynes-interview/feed/0Super Extra Bonus Party: Return of the Underdogshttp://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/super-extra-bonus-party-return-underdogs/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/super-extra-bonus-party-return-underdogs/#respondSun, 10 Dec 2017 10:00:35 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6207Seven years after their last release, Ireland’s favourite indie outliers Super Extra Bonus Party return with a new single. They look back to their blistering best. IT’S EARLY 2007, and against all the odds, Newbridge band Super Extra Bonus Party are stood on the stage collecting a gong and a large cheque, having taken home [...]

]]>Seven years after their last release, Ireland’s favourite indie outliers Super Extra Bonus Party return with a new single. They look back to their blistering best.

IT’S EARLY 2007, and against all the odds, Newbridge band Super Extra Bonus Party are stood on the stage collecting a gong and a large cheque, having taken home the Choice Music Prize for their self-titled debut album.

It’s probably the most controversial decision in the history of the competition. Cathy Davey, Delorentos and Kila are all household names, and all have acclaimed albums up for the award, but it comes as little surprise to those with their ear to the ground of Irish music. An album that’s only touched on the fringes of mainstream consciousness has, in some knowledgeable corners, been hailed as the most inventive Irish album in a decade.

With follow up Night Horses, the hip-hop/ indie fusion act returned with abundant Dublin-scene special guests in 2009, accompanying the searing and memorable release with a series of blistering and beloved live shows, before calling an indefinite hiatus in 2011.

Whispers of a return began as early as 2015, and with November’s new single ‘Switzerland’, the revered six-piece (seventh member Rodrigo Teles has sadly departed Irish shores for his native Brazil) have finally returned to the fray.

“It had been kicking around for a while, but the decision was made out the back of a pub in Dingle in December 2014 as part of a ‘tired and emotional’ chat we all had while on a mate’s stag,” Gavin Elsted tells us. “We felt that we had left things unfinished and without any external pressure, wanted to start working on music just to see if the old spark was still there.”

“It was never about the relationships in the band, because in the intervening years we’d still hang out whenever we could, so when we eventually took the first step into the studio, it was like we never left. There was so much joy at being back where we felt we belonged. I still think in some ways it’s an excuse to hang out a bit more with each other, but at least now we have something to show for it!”

In a sense, with Irish hip-hop currently at by far its highest ever ebb, Super Extra Bonus Party are a more natural fit for today’s scene, with Elsted telling us that current stars Rusangano Family “made me wish Bonus Party were still going every time I saw them.”

“We’ve listened to hip-hop forever really and it’s still a very integral part of the band and one of our main influences,” Stephen ‘Fats’ Fahey adds. “It’s a very natural part of our arsenal, so we’d be producing tunes with a hip-hop influence regardless of the climate for sure.” The climate, though, is very likely to be still more accepting than last time around, and that can only be a positive.

That writing process has come very naturally, with Fahey describing the progression as less challenging than last time around, at least so far.

“Mostly It feels a lot easier,” he explains, “and I think that’s going to be reflected in the music. We’ve developed a lot both as people and as musicians. Years ago we avoided difficult conversations. We avoided uncomfortable confrontation and the necessity of critical analysis.”

“Our approach back then tended to be to identify space in a tune and immediately fill it with my amazing part. Now we’re talking so much more about our music and trying create and maintain space, facilitating each others ideas and encouraging each other as much as we can.”

New single Switzerland, naturally, went through a slightly messy, iterative process, as has much of Bonus Party’s work. The result is a glitchy, bleeping melody fused with power chords and fresh, echoey vocals.

“Switzerland was one of the first demos that were floating around when we first started working on music again,” Elsted explains. “As per usual with us, it started off as a totally different song.”

“I think it was meant to be more of a housier track with some guitars added, but we stripped it back and all that was left that we actually liked was the little synth arpeggio, which is essentially the spine of the song. It went through various permutations with other members veering between trying to get rid of it altogether (not naming any names!) and adding some valuable constructive criticism or suggestions for the sequencing. We had been rehearsing it for a while before we finally got into gear.”

“The drums were done in Herbert Place Studios in Dublin with our long-suffering producer Sean Corcoran, with the instrumentation and vocals all done in his studio in Rathmines. Lots of ‘Ooh I’m not sure about that’ and ‘We are definitely not using that synth it sounds like an arse’ later, we had the bones of the song. The mixing process was surprisingly easy, but I reckon that was because Sean wouldn’t let us near it. Probably for the best. We’re so delighted with how it turned out.”

Switzerland is not to be a one-off. The band are already announcing shows, and an album – jokingly working-titled ‘Led Zeppelin 4’ – is on the longer-term horizon. “The album is still our yardstick,” Fahey tells us.

As for that big moment at Vicar Street all those years ago?

“You have to understand that we were total outsiders,” Elsted recalls. “We were relatively unknown to critics and bands because we had essentially come from nowhere. I remember being excited to play in Vicar Street, really relishing it. Being able to hoof around and have fun with my friends on a national stage was an indescribable feeling. The win was the win. We can’t account for why we were chosen, we were just blown away by it.”

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/super-extra-bonus-party-return-underdogs/feed/0Lankum: Sixteen Years of Trad Exploration, Delivered with an Angry Punch.http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/lankum-interview/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/lankum-interview/#respondSun, 03 Dec 2017 16:35:01 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6201The Guardian hailed them as the best folk act out of Ireland in years. Here’s the story behind research-loving Dublin trad-folk miscreants Lankum IN MID OCTOBER 2015, a little-known four piece appeared on the BBC’s iconic alternative music show Later With Jools Holland. Performing harmonised folk tracks like ‘Father Had A Knife’, the Dublin act [...]

]]>The Guardian hailed them as the best folk act out of Ireland in years. Here’s the story behind research-loving Dublin trad-folk miscreants Lankum

IN MID OCTOBER 2015, a little-known four piece appeared on the BBC’s iconic alternative music show Later With Jools Holland. Performing harmonised folk tracks like ‘Father Had A Knife’, the Dublin act could already trace their roots back more than 14 years. They’d finally got their break.

That band are now known as Lankum (more on that later), and the rise of the melodic four-piece was already well underway back home in Ireland. The big shot across the water came as a surprise, however. A demo CD that Lankum had sent to “anywhere we could think of” stood out from a pile BBC Head of Music Mark Cooper was hunting through, and next thing – at two weeks notice – Ian Lynch and his band were performing to a prime-time BBC2 audience.

The roots of Lankum, though, reach back through well over a decade of live performance. Lynch has been around Dublin trad circles since the 90s, and much of what Lankum do now is drawn from his involvement in the the kind of music-loving exchanges that still happen between trad-sphere friends and around pub sessions.

Things also went much further for Lynch. “There are lots of recordings passed around, and we often record at sessions, too. I’ve found if you ask and explain why you’re recording, people are great about it. I’ve never had anyone say no. It’s normal for friends to exchange tapes on the trad scene, too. I’ve also worked in the archives at Merrion Square, The Piper’s Club, and UCD over the years, and spent a lot of that time working while listening my way through the archives.”

“We draw from a mix of ideas,” he continues, “and that contains a lot of crunchy pub and field recordings, which are very far from polished. Some are rough as hell. Then there’s techno, krautrock, punk and even black metal in there. It’s not crossover music, the presence is quite subtle, but the different elements do make up our musical palette.”

Lankum also produce original tracks (and the traditional ones are often heavily adapted), but much of their work is drawn from Irish, Scottish, English and even German folk traditions, and routed in that quiet exchange of shaky cassette tape recording.

“The songs we write definitely sound like they’re out of the 18th or 19th Century,” Lynch explains. “We listen to so much of this stuff that it happens very naturally, we’re very immersed in that tradition, so it’s not really that conscious”

Of course, trad stylings are not widely seen as a natural fit for the larger stage, but then again harmonies are far from common in Irish trad, and being signed to iconic indie label Rough Trade is normally the sign of an intensely fashionable indie act.

“Rough Trade have been branching out a bit recently, and the main criteria is whether the boss, Jeff Travis, likes something,” Lynch explains. “It’s been a bit of a change; our first album was recorded on equipment normally used to archive trad music, so not exactly cutting edge. Obviously the [new record] ‘Between the Earth and the Sky’ wasn’t.”

“But it’s been really good with Rough Trade. We’ve asked for a few things, like not having the barcode on the vinyl art work. They had to make the record a double vinyl release as we like to write 12-minute songs, and that kind of gets in the way of having a normal single vinyl release. But they’ve been really great about that kind of thing, they don’t try and influence what we do.”

The fast rise has changed the band’s allure, too. “We’ve found as we’ve moved on to a stage, different people have been interested in us,” Lynch tells us. “It’s not really a conscious change, it kind of happened naturally, but we get a different kind of audience.”

Much of the rise of Lankum, strangely, came under a different name, ‘Lynched’. It goes against virtually every rule of music PR to change the name of an established act, and generally happens only due to copyright issues. Lankum made the change after that Jools Holland appearance, but as their audience expanded, the Dubliners felt the renaming – to a name referencing the traveler folk ballad ‘False Lankum’ – was a necessary decision.

“We had a few promoters who were not happy, as it inevitably meant people didn’t recognise who we were on posters and stuff” Lynch tells us, “but we felt we had to take responsibility. As we started doing bigger gigs abroad, the first thing people see is the name. Irish people wouldn’t really think of the association, but in parts of the world like America, ‘Lynched’ (a reference to Ian’s surname) is a bit too close to the persecution of black people. It was a difficult decision, as we were established under the old name, and we did see a dip in audiences for a little while afterwards, but we really needed to clearly distance ourselves from that association.”

That particular concern faded fast, and Lankum have gone on to win over fans with every tour, every release and every new melody. But for all their success on bigger stages, the band still regularly drop back into the folk scene, both for the love, and the inspiration. Lynch tells us that the band spent over an hour playing a trad session near The Spirit Store before their own gig in Dundalk recently, and in typical style, it sounds like he enjoyed the experience more than the gig itself.

“I’ve always felt that’s something that’s missing for guitar bands, that once they’re big, they never seem to go back to that small room, that intimate setting,” he concludes. “This will always be part of our lives.”

Lankum play Vicar Street, Dublin on December 9, with support from Lisa O’Neill. Third album ‘Between the Earth and the Sky’ is out now.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.

]]>http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/12/lankum-interview/feed/0The Gaiety Panto: “It’s a challenge, but it’s really, really rewarding”http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/11/gaiety-panto-challenge-really-really-rewarding/
http://www.hendicottwriting.com/2017/11/gaiety-panto-challenge-really-really-rewarding/#respondSun, 26 Nov 2017 10:00:40 +0000http://www.hendicottwriting.com/?p=6195Love/Hate and Fair City star Johnny Ward talks his return to the Gaiety Theatre for pantomime season HAVING STARTED OUT way back in 1873, the Gaiety Panto is a Dublin Christmas institution, a classically playful comedy returning night after night with plenty of stories… ahem… behind them. This year, the age-old performance on offer is [...]

]]>Love/Hate and Fair City star Johnny Ward talks his return to the Gaiety Theatre for pantomime season

HAVING STARTED OUT way back in 1873, the Gaiety Panto is a Dublin Christmas institution, a classically playful comedy returning night after night with plenty of stories… ahem… behind them.

This year, the age-old performance on offer is a stage adaptation of Rapunzel, featuring the return of Ireland’s most famous pantomime dame for the 28th time, as well as Ciara Lyons in the hair-y title role, and former Love/ Hate man Johnny Ward fitting right in as Johnny B. Goode.

For all the throwaway, sporadic feel of panto, though, the Gaiety offering is a serious undertaking, at least internally. For the cast, Christmas starts the morning after Halloween, with rehearsals underway in earnest.

“There are three days off scheduled for the entire run,” Ward tells us, as he returns to the Gaiety following his earlier appearances in Cinderella (2012) and Peter Pan (2014). “It’s hectic, but I remember it as a child and it means a lot, it’s a real Christmas tradition. You have to be aware of that when you’re performing in it. I met my girlfriend through my part in the panto in 2012, so it has great memories for me more recently, too.”

Ward is better known for his role as Pauley in Love/ Hate, with his character dying by falling from a balcony. He also stars in Fair City as Ciaran Holloway, so despite his earlier experiences, the panto is far from his usual style.

“Panto is frowned upon by some, especially those actors who only do film and theatre,” he admits. “But I think it’s important to do. There are some great people here. Joe Conlan [the dame] has been doing this forever and doesn’t do anything else as an actor. He specialises because he’s just really good at what he does. Panto isn’t like film and TV, and it’s his forte. He’s a real gentleman, but absolutely nuts with it.”

There are technical challenges that come with the role, however, in particular as it continues night after night. “There’s a part of the script that I read and just thought ‘that’s impossible’, looking at the stage set up, but I had the same experience last time, and it came off, so I’m sure we’ll do it,” Ward explains.

“The whole thing is really physically demanding, because it plays every day, sometimes twice a day. You end the run exhausted. You wake up at half 8, have sound check at half 9 or 10 o’clock. Then there might be a kids show or schools show at 11. At 2pm I’ll get a couple of hours to just wander around town a bit, get some food, and then we do it all again. It’s a challenge, but it’s really rewarding. I love watching the kids react.”

The noise, in fact, is part of the experience. “It’s an interactive thing, and that really adds to the experience. It’s full of young kids, ones who shouldn’t really be watching things like Love/ Hate, but they all seem to know me as Pauley. Once, I was standing on the balcony in a Peter Pan scene a little after that Love/ Hate episode ran, and one of the kids yells out ‘don’t jump’. I still get approached by kids calling me Pauley.”

With the Tivoli panto having made its way onto TV in recent years, Ward also feels the in-person side of the Gaiety (which has never been televised) is something special, something to be protected. “Personally I don’t want it on TV,” he explains. “It’s not about the cameras, it’s about the screaming and the interaction, about the tradition and the experience. You can’t capture that on television.”

Ward should know. There’s quite a step between the darkness of Pauley’s like and the lightness of a fairytale story like Rapunzel, but as we head towards December, that lightness just seems like a natural adjustment. It’s the spirit of Christmas represented in the business of the actor, a fun-filled slog that’s ultimately about handing their holidays over for the kids. Expect a little bit of magic.

Rapunzel runs in the Gaiety Theatre from November 26 to January 7, with tickets from €19.50, available now.

This article is part of my weekly music column for the Dublin Gazette, reproduced here with permission. Note: this column is published in the Dublin Gazette several days ahead of on this website. The Gazette is a freesheet paper available across Dublin, published on a Thursday. Pick up copies at these locations.